Personal Names and Heritage: Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"

Abstract

The short story "Everyday UseH1 is central in Alice Walker's writing, particularly as it represents her response to the concept of heritage as expressed by the Black political movements of the 60s. Despite its importance, no adequate explanation of the African and Arab names used in the text has to my knowledge appeared. Yet Walker was very careful in her choice of names, which signify an important part of her characterization. "Everyday Use" is found in Alice Walker's collection of short stories, In Love and Trouble, which was published in 1973.2 This was in the heyday of the Black Power ideologies when "Black was beautiful," the "Afro" hairstyle was in fashion and Blacks were seeking their cultural roots in Africa, without knowing too much about the continent or the routes of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Or as Clara and Inger Juncker say in their notes to the short story in their anthology of Afro-American Women Writers, Black Roses from 1984: